


The Day of the Mother

by MariaJonsson



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 18:12:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2821514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MariaJonsson/pseuds/MariaJonsson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ned finds out about a special holiday of the faith.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Day of the Mother

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N: ******Written for Cat x Ned week on Tumblr. The prompt was the Faith of the Seven. Happy Holidays.  
>  **Disclaimer:** I own nothing, all characters belong to George R. R. Martin. This is just for fun.

 

Ned woke up to his wife's body pressing tightly against him, her cold feet seeking the heat of his own.  
  
Catelyn appeared to be fast asleep, however her deliberate movements caused him to think she was in fact awake and he slipped an arm around her, moving his fingers from her stomach up to cup her oversensitive breast. Her loud gasp along with her bottom pressed tightly against his cock, confirmed his suspicion.  
  
"Good morning, my love," Ned rasped in her ear, pressing closer to her, tightening his fingers over her breast.  
  
"Mhm, good morning," she answered in a sleepy voice, slipping a hand between their bodies and grabbed his hardening cock. "Is this for me?"  
  
"You're incorrigible," he growled as she stroked his cock.  
  
"Maybe," she said, and Ned could picture the smirk on her beautiful lips.  
  
Wanting to see her face he turned her head, looking into the clear blue eyes he so loved, pressing a kiss to her pouty lips.  
  
"Do you need to feed Bran?" Ned asked before going further.  
  
Catelyn reached up to stroke his face, "I already did. I couldn't fall asleep again."  
  
"So you thought to wake me to keep you company?" He asked with a raised brow.  
  
Cat didn't reply, just smirked at him, her hand leaving his cock to stroke over his beard.  
  
"Incorrigible," Ned repeated, pressing his lips against hers again, this time lingering until her lips parted allowing him to deepen the kiss.  
  
"But you love me all the same," Catelyn whispered against his lips when they parted.  
  
"I really do," Ned replied without reservation, turning her body around so he could settle between her thighs, thrusting into her quickly, earning him her nails clawing down his back.  
  
Afterwards, Ned managed to convince Cat to put on her shift, claiming she would be cold when he left, to which she sleepily replied that he should then simply not leave. Despite her tranquil state she knew he had matter to attend to and after falling once again asleep in his arms, Ned slowly removed himself and got dressed.  
  
Before leaving, he checked on the babe, the boy was thankfully fast asleep and Ned brushed a hand over the child's fiery hair.  
  
Ned knew he would only have an hour or so before she would be up again. Making love always made her sleepy, while Ned was more awake, her presence quickening his blood to a point that even finding release inside her body could not sooth him.  
  
Just thinking of her freckled, milky white, skin and auburn hair made his cock twitch, so he quickly reminded himself of what he had to accomplish before his lovely wife awoke once more.  
  
They had been married for nearly seven years now, and their marriage had gifted them four beautiful children, each one as perfect as the next.  
  
Although Ned had had the smiths build a Sept for his then lonely and sad wife, during the more difficult years of their marriage, Ned knew little about the Seven or their rules and holiday, even having spent his youth in the Vale.  
  
Then a moon ago he had heard the Maester explain to his oldest son the holidays of the Faith, and for some reason his wife had never found it important enough to tell him that during the seven years of their marriage they had never celebrated the day of the mother.  
  
Of course Ned shouldn't have been surprised, Catelyn had barely gotten here when she adapted to their ways, their culture, gone were the fine gowns and elaborate hairstyles of the South and instead she adorned Stark grey and white, Northern gowns, with thick furs and her hair was more often than not tied into practical Northern braids.  
  
The Sept would not even stand in the courtyard were it not for him having it built without her knowledge. Ned would have built a thousand Septs to see that smile again, it only lasted long enough for her mind to remember her duty. That moment was the moment Ned knew he could one day truly come to love his wife, not just for the sake of duty. Catelyn, however, had worried about what people would say. She had not even asked to keep any of her ladies from Riverrun, instead surrounding herself with Northern ladies that could teach her the ways of the North, earning her respect among Ned’s bannermen.  
  
Ned had asked Old Nan to entertain Jon this morning, since he would not be participating and while Ned understood that the fault was his own, he did not want Jon to feel neglected while Ned shared the morning with his wife and their children.  
  
After speaking with the cooks about having food sent up to his wife's chambers for them and the children, he went to seek out his children.  
  
He had tasked Robb with making sure his sisters made something special for their mother, and the boy had puffed out his chest and vowed he would do so, and while he wanted to show Robb he valued him, Robb was only seven and so he had one of the nursery maids keep an eye on them.  
  
When he opened the door to nursery, a small person collided with his feet and Ned looked down upon his older daughter's auburn mane.  
  
"Papa!" she exclaimed, looking up at him with her mother's blue eyes. "Look!"  
  
Sansa handed him what looked like needlework, and stitched on it was a slightly crocked red flower, although much nicer than he had believed his four year old daughter could make.  
  
"You like?" Sansa asked.  
  
Ned reached down and swung her up into his arms, making the girl giggle, her little arms winding around his neck.  
  
"I love," he said, pressing a kiss to her soft cheek before setting her down on her feet again, handing her the cloth.  
  
Robb stood still, smiling, holding a wiggling Arya in his arms, her little fist clutched around a bouquet of flowers.  
  
"I help Arya pick flowers to," Sansa said proudly, pointing at the bouquet in her sister's hand. "And Robb made mama a fish."  
  
"A fish?" Ned inquired as he took the wiggling two year old from Robb, the girl thrusting the flowers at him, and Sansa put her hands on her waist.  
  
"No Arya, they are for mother." Arya understood, yet frowned at her sister and accidentally stuck a flower up Ned's nose, making him sneeze loudly.  
  
"Yes, Arya," he said, after pulling the flowers from his face. "Very pretty."  
  
Robb still had not said much, allowing his sisters to be first.  
  
"What fish is this your sister mentioned?" Ned asked, as he tried to balance both girls in his arms as Robb walked beside him towards Catelyn’s chambers.  
  
Robb looked down on his feet, and then back up at him, "I know you asked us to make something, but I didn't, Mikken helped me because I couldn’t make it by myself."  
  
Robb lifted a pin from his pocket, it was a silver coloured pin, in the shape of a leaping trout.  
  
"Maester Luwin says mother is a Tully, and their sigil is a trout, not a wolf like ours," Robb explained, having stopped in the middle of the hallway, shuffling his feat.  
  
"That is true," Ned answered. "Your mother was born in Riverrun, in the Riverlands, and the sigil of their house is a leaping trout, like ours is a direwolf."  
  
Robb just nodded, "Do you think she'll like it?"  
  
Ned had never seen him look so unsure, he was the first and only tureborn son, and so had the confidence befitting his stature. Although Robb saw Jon in no different light than his sister and loved all of his family whole heartedly. Yet, now he worried his mother, who also loved her family whole heartedly, would not like his present.  
  
"Do not worry son, she'll love it. I'm sure," Ned reassured him, and it seemed to work because the boy slipped the pin back into the bag it came in and then into his pocket.  
  
The servants were already standing outside the lady's chambers, respectful of the instructions he had given about waiting until he arrived with the children.  
  
Ned put the girls down on their feet, and Sansa giggled softly, and Robb in turn shushed her.  
  
Ned had barely opened the chamber doors before Arya was running inside on her little feet, yelling loudly "mama."  
  
Ned stepped inside just in time to see his wife's surprised look as she tried to cover herself with the furs.  
  
Arya was the first one inside, already trying to climb onto Cat's bed just as Ned and the older two entered.  
  
"What is all this, my lord?" Catelyn asked, smiling as she lifted their daughter onto the bed, pressing a kiss to her already messy hair.  
  
"The maester explained to me that I have been neglecting a very holy day in your honour," Ned said, lifting Sansa onto Cat's bed as well. Robb was already old enough to climb and would not appreciate Ned's help, so Ned let him wander the room, and look inside his brother's cradle.  
  
"What do you mean, my lord?" Catelyn asked in bewilderment, grabbing Arya's hand just as it was about to pull on one of Sansa's braids. "It isn't my nameday for another moon."  
  
"It is mama's day!" Sansa exclaimed.  
  
"Mother's Day, Sansa," Robb explained harshly, to which Sansa replied by sticking out her tongue at her brother.  
  
"Sansa," Catelyn softly admonished. "Ladies do not stick out their tongues, even when their brothers should have been more courteous."  
  
Robb at least looked scolded enough so Ned let it go.  
  
"The Maester was teaching Robb about the days of the Seven, and he told him that many celebrate the Day of the Mother, by showering their own mother with gifs and food, reminding me." Ned quickly stepped outside and asked the servants to put the trays onto the table and then dismissed them, explaining that they would serve themselves as well as the children.  
  
"Oh, Ned. You didn't have to go to all this trouble," Catelyn said, tightening her hold on the girls, while reaching a hand out to Robb, who came willingly.  
  
"We made you a gift," Sansa exclaimed, picking up the cloth that she still clutched in her little hand.  
  
Catelyn took the cloth and examined it. "It's beautiful, Sansa, thank you."  
  
"Septa Mordane help me just a little," Sansa beamed proudly at her mother.  
  
"That was very kind of her, we should thank her the next time we see her," Catelyn said, stroking over Sansa's hair.  
  
"I also help Arya pick flowers, but she lost them," Sansa said, frowning at her sister.  
  
Ned bent over by the bed, picking up the red flowers Arya had let go in her hurry to be with her mother.  
  
"Thorry," Arya said, reaching out for the flower, and then handing them to her mother. "Ftlowerth."  
  
"No, Arya. FLOWERS," Sansa said, putting emphasis on each letter.  
  
"Thank you," Catelyn said, pressing a kiss to Arya's pudgy cheeks.  
  
"Mama, no," Arya giggled, when Catelyn grabbed the girls pressing kisses all over their faces.  
  
The girl's laughter must have awoken poor Bran for his screams now echoed in the room. Ned was about to go pick him up, when Robb beat him to it, gently picking up his little brother, and carrying him over to his mother's bed.  
  
"Thank you, Robb," Catelyn replied gently, taking the still sobbing toddler from Robb.  
  
"Bran and I got you a present as well," Robb said shyly, reaching into the pocket he had hidden the pin in earlier. Handing it to his mother, who was quite used to handling a babe with only one hand.  
  
"Thank you, Robb," Catelyn said, reaching for their oldest son, who had to almost climb over his sisters to be kissed by Catelyn.  
  
The look of utter amazement came over Catelyn's face when she realized what it was.  
  
"Oh, Robb, thank you. I'll always cherish it," Catelyn said, reaching over the girls to kiss him again.  
  
"I didn't really make it, mother. Mikken did," Robb confessed.  
  
"Did you ask him to make it?" Catelyn asked.  
  
Robb nodded his head, his face turning a light shade of pink.  
  
"Then it doesn't matter at all if you made it or not," Catelyn assured him. "We can not master all skills, and therefore we must seek out others to help us, as you did with Mikken."  
  
Robb nodded seriously, just as Bran started crying again.  
  
"I think your brother is hungry, and we should break our fast as well before all the wonderful food brought to us gets cold," Catelyn said, and Ned suddenly remembered all the food, again.  
  
After they had all been fed, and Bran was once again content in his crib, Ned managed to have one of Catelyn's maids, take the girls back to Septa Mordane and Robb to his lessons with the Maester.  
  
"Thank you, I had no idea," Catelyn said, smiling smugly. "Thank the gods you managed to get me to dress at least in my shift before you left."  
  
"Yeah, that might have been slightly awkward," he said, standing behind her as she finished combing through her red hair.  
  
"I love you," Catelyn said, her blue eyes locking with his in her looking glass.  
  
"And I you," Ned answered, thinking he should get to the days work, yet all he wanted to do was get her out of the clothes she just put on and under the furs again.  
  
"If we do what you are thinking we will never get anything done today," Catelyn teased, turning around to look at him directly.  
  
She always could read him better than most people, but in the last few years she seemed to read his very thoughts.  
  
"Thank you for today, I loved it," Catelyn said, pressing a kiss to his hand.  
  
"You should have told me. Our children are of the North and have a Southern mother. They follow both the Old Gods and the Seven," Ned said, stroking her newly combed hair. "Days that are important to you are important to me. No matter where they come from. And especially a day that celebrates you as the mother of our children, no day in the year is as important as that."  
  
"I'm sorry," she said, a tear slipping from her blue eyes. He leaned down pressing a kiss to her cheeks, brushing her tears away.  
  
"There is nothing to apologize for, but if there are other things I have missed I would have you tell me, or perhaps you should tell Sansa, since she is more likely to remember and will undoubtedly remind me." Ned said fondly, remember her excitement over the occasion. "Are you sure the day does not call for you to be confined to your chamber with your husband for the whole day? After all is that not how you became a mother?"

 

Catelyn laughed, standing up to press a kiss to his lips. Ned knew he would never trade in his Old Gods, yet his wife’s Seven brought the most wonder smiles to her face, and if there was anything that would have him change his mind, it would be Catelyn’s smile.

 

The End.


End file.
